Who do I contact if I have questions about specific
payments to a specific vendor by an agency?
Call or e-mail the agency directly. For a listing of agency
phone numbers, website and other information, use the
State’s
agency directory.

Who do I contact for general information about the
spending portion of Open.Alabama.Gov?
If you have any questions about spending, or suggestions on
improving the reporting of Alabama state government
finances, please contact
opengov@Comptroller.Alabama.Gov.

How often is the checkbook updated?
The data on this website is updated Tuesday-Saturday
mornings.

What if I see more than one payee with the same
name?
Because Open.Alabama.gov is a virtual checkbook, all
transactions are recorded by the payee exactly as it
appeared on the check. Thus, there could be several payees
with the same name and all are different payees, having
different payee identification numbers. The State also does
business with companies that have multiple branch addresses which
we pay as separate payee numbers but the payee name is the
same.

What does the parenthesis around an amount mean?
It means that the amount is negative. This could be due to a
refund, reimbursement or correction of a payment.

Why is detail information by payee not always
available?
The payee information is on the payment voucher at the time
the payment is made. However, agencies often use journal
vouchers to reclassify groups of like payments to different
funds and sub-categories in order to comply with a variety
of laws, regulations, and federal grant requirements.

Is the information presented audited?
The online checkbook data is unaudited and presented on a
cash basis. However, the CAFR is audited by the Alabama
Examiners of Public Accounts.

How would I know what is included in a category or
subcategory amount?
The user should click the (?) mark in the description column
that is located next to the corresponding transaction.

Can I do a partial name search?
Yes. Open.Alabama.gov searches from the beginning of words.
However, it will not find characters in the middle of words.
Therefore, if you search for “mart” it finds “Joe Martin”,
“Martha Smith”, and “James Marty Steele”, but not “Wal-mart”
or “smart”.

Why would the PO/Contract # be blank?
The expenditure did not require a purchase order or
contract.

When I click Download Excel, should I choose open or
save?
If you want to be able to manipulate (sort, total, copy,
etc.) the data in excel, you need to choose save.

Why would only the Download PDF button be available
to me and not the Excel button?
The amount of information you have queried on exceeds the
limit that can be downloaded to Excel.

What is included in the personnel costs category?
Gross pay before taxes and other deductions. Gross pay
includes overtime, subsistence allowances for law
enforcement personnel, termination and separation costs,
prior period adjustments, etc. For more detail, refer to
personnel cost in the
chart of accounts. Gross pay may vary
from paycheck to paycheck.

Why is there no gross pay for individual employees
for fiscal year 2009 and 2008?
OpenAlabama.gov does not have historical data on gross pay
before October 1, 2010.